NEW MADRID -- A New Madrid County judge followed the state's recommendation in sentencing a Poplar Bluff man Tuesday afternoon to 20 years in prison for causing the 2013 death of his father by repeatedly striking him with a baseball bat.
Accompanied by his attorney, Amanda Altman with the Public Defender's Office, Matthew Dale Jenkins was sentenced by Presiding Circuit Judge Fred Copeland, according to Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Barbour.
"He got 20," which was the state's recommendation, Barbour said.
Jenkins's attorney, Barbour said, had been asking for a sentence of 10 or 15 years.
The 29-year-old pleaded guilty in September to the Class A felony of second-degree murder in connection with the death of his father, Carl Don Jenkins.
The elder Jenkins, along with his then 60-year-old wife, Vicki Jenkins, had suffered what earlier was described as massive head trauma after each was beaten in the head with an aluminum baseball bat inside their Wilson Street home on Jan. 15, 2013.
Carl Jenkins died 15 days later at St. Louis University Hospital after family members removed him from life support.
An autopsy found the 56-year-old had suffered "a blunt trauma injury, with brain damage, that resulted in brain death," according to Butler County Deputy Coroner Mike Elliott's earlier testimony at Matthew Jenkins' preliminary hearing.
Barbour said the victims' family members were present for Jenkins' sentencing, but did not address the court.
"They spoke with him after sentencing, but I was not privy to that conversation," Barbour said.
Authorities reportedly learned of the attack at about 12:30 p.m. Jan. 15, 2013, when Matthew Jenkins, the couple's eldest son, called 911 and reported to the Poplar Bluff Police Department that he had arrived home to find his parents had been "severely assaulted."
The Butler County/Poplar Bluff Major Case Squad was activated to investigate the couple's assault.
During a subsequent interview, the younger Jenkins reported "he had an argument with his mother and father, and during the course of the argument, he struck Carl Jenkins in the head approximately four times with an aluminum bat," according to then Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. Jeff Johnson's probable-cause statement.
Matthew Jenkins, Johnson said, also admitted to striking his mother in the head about two times with the bat.
After hitting his parents, Matthew Jenkins "attempted to render first aid and then he called 911," Johnson said.
Carl Jenkins, Deputy Chief Jeff Rolland earlier said, was attacked first while seated in his chair in the home's living room. His wife was in bed when attacked.
Matthew Jenkins, whose parents recently had kicked him out of the house, was upset over his parents' alleged criticism for "how he was living his life," Rolland said. "He wasn't trying to get a job. He wasn't being an appropriate father to his daughter, and the criticism had gone on over several years, and he just snapped."
In a hospital interview, Rolland said, Vicki Jenkins told a Highway Patrol investigator her son had hit her.
Vicki Jenkins, who had been critically injured, died Oct. 9, 2014.